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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimbaBear who wrote (118491)	12/21/2000 8:59:03 AM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 769670

Precisely, they won't be called, and therefore the government cannot, largely, retire the debt at its discretion, but at the discretion of the bond holders. The "lockbox" had to do with squirreling away the surplus for future obligations, not only Social Security, but debt service, as far as I could tell. The surpluses that were being argued about were over and above Social Security revenue. Actually, pension funds invest. Social Security does not. It does not really act like a pension fund, except in the limited sense of "buying" non- negotiable government securities (i.e., lending the general budget money for an unfavorable interest rate). It is a ponzi scheme. If we give people the tax break, they can pay off some of their own debt, also a desirable goal...... By the way, interest rates are pretty low, although fluctuating according to the Fed's behavior. The touted "credit crunch" resulting from the deficit has never occurred. For example, someone with an excellent credit rating can get between 9 and 10% on an unsecured consumer credit card. Not bad......